In an ultimately unsurprising revelation, United States Secret Service Director-under-fire Kimberly Cheatle — as it turns out — owes her job largely to a close relationship with First Lady "Dr." Jill Biden and her inner circle of advisers who pushed for her to get the job.
As an exclusive report in The New York Post explained, Cheatle was plucked by the Biden administration from her position as PepsiCo's senior director of global security in 2022 where she had landed after she previously "served 27 years in the Secret Service, beginning in the Clinton administration."
Monday's story in the Post cited information from multiple sources "close to President Biden's family, including people who interacted with Cheatle during the Obama-Biden administration" who said she "was well liked by the future first lady and her most senior aides, including top adviser Anthony Bernal."
More on what sources told the Post:
“Cheatle served on Dr. Biden’s second lady detail and Anthony pushed for her,” a Democratic insider told The Post. “Anthony has no national security or law enforcement experience. He should have no influence over the selection of the USSS director.”
“I heard at the time she was being considered for director that Anthony had pushed her forward as an option,” another well-placed source told The Post.
Bernal, 51, is widely regarded as rivaling even White House chief of staff Jeff Zients in terms of influence over administration decisions.
He has faced allegations of bullying and sexual harassment from colleagues who have likened his sway to that of Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin over the Romanov court.
“Anthony is obsessed with being DEI-compliant,” a third source told The Post, using the acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion — the human resources practice of attempting to ensure diversity in the workforce.
Cheatle, who claims the "buck" stops with her but already denied any culpability for the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday, faces tough headwinds now as a Biden-ordered "independent" investigation of the attack on Trump's rally — and scrutiny from Congress — looms.
As for what is expected to be raised in those probes, Cheatle's own words in the wake of the near-assassination of Trump are sure to be scrutinized. For example, the claim in an interview that Secret Service agents were not on the roof — instead they were inside the building — from which the shooter opened fire on the former president's rally because it was "sloped" does not seem likely to pass muster.
The Biden administration has already said — confusingly before any results of investigations into how the shooter was able to work his way into position and fire multiple shots into the Pennsylvania rally that struck Trump in the ear, killed one attendee, and critically wounded two other Trump supporters — that the Secret Service has its "100 percent support."
Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle landed job after push by Jill Biden’s office, sources say https://t.co/VPTh8TYxCd pic.twitter.com/RSRsxqc0qZ
— New York Post (@nypost) July 15, 2024
It's probably easier to issue such a premature, baseless, and broad statement of support when the agency is run by a close ally of the First Lady and her office. It's even easier when one remembers the Biden administration has not accepted any responsibility for any other crises or disasters that have occurred on its watch: the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, inflation, the supply chain crisis, border chaos...the list goes on and on.